Help!! I'm doing some research for a TV programme about Cardiff. Does anyone know if there are any well known or influential people in the US who have links with Cardiff or even if any of the US Presidents with Welsh connections do.

Welsh claim on first car...?In 1805 Oliver Evans, American of Welsh descent drove his steam powered digging machine to work! - Not only the first automobile but a company car too! - The hook to hang his jacket on came a lot later :-)

The only famous person with a US connection to come from Cardiff was Shirley Bassey. Most famous Welshmen would not have been seen dead in the place! It was just a small backwater port exporting coal to Aden in South Yemen until the early 20th century. It was, if you like, a kind of "Pensylvania by the Sea" .

Now in the 21st Century it's a buzzing, cultural city yet still retaining it's quaint white stilletoe image.

He's not that well-known yet, but Ioan Gruffudd is from Cardiff, Wales. For those of you who don't know, he was Horatio in the Horatio Hornblower series for A&E and is Lancelot in the new King Arthur movie.

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If we could just stand here, without the words, would that be enough? ..Look at the sky now. What color is it? Or the way a hawk flies. Or you wake up and your ribs are bruised thinking so hard on somebody. What do you call that?